Photoshop: Purge Memory

I am dealing with large documents. 144 x 144 cm in 300 dpi. At some point I am getting to the point where I can flatten the image and therefore also purge the memory.

I Choose Edit -> Purge -> All

That doesn't clean up the memory. So I choose Help -> About Photoshop CC with the Alt key pressed. This frees up 3 GB of memory. Going from 18 GB to 15 GB.

I then close Photoshop and reopen the same image. Now Photoshop uses 1.3 GB of memory.

I explicitly tested this with one and the same image. Over and over again...

Clearly something must be either terribly wrong or I must be doing something terribly wrong.

But why, for crying out loud, Does Purge -> All not purge the memory?? I remember this worked ages ago. What happened? Is Photoshop keeping copies and history in RAM, despite me choosing to toss all that? Plus why doesn't at least work the (imho) VERY quirky way of having to choose Help -> About Photoshop CC with alt pressed either??

Oh yeah, wait, I should get a 12 Core X99 machine with 128 GB of RAM and a Geforce Quadro GP100 . But noooo, then it will be slower because I have a too powerful machine...

Sorry for my midnight rampage. But I watched Photoshop dialogs and clicking away memory warnings and Windows telling me that all swap space is used up all night. Maybe I should have opened that bottle of rum... :)

This is Photoshop 2017.1.1 on Windows 10. All patched OS and newest GFX drivers et al.

So you're saying that Photoshop will be faster using an external USB/eSATA disc than using my internal SSD and my 7200 rpm raid 0 for scratch? That sounds like a joke... But hey, it's an absurd world we live in...

EDIT: Even if this will help, it does not explain the strange engineering behind purging memory...

Yes... it's weird I know... I usually retouched large crazy file sizes with crazy DPI's. But having those SSD raid for scratch disk does help move those crazy files that are requested from clients. At the place I freelance at they have a Mac Pro trash can 6 core with 32 gigs with mini pegasus raid https://www.adorama.com/pr2m4hd4us.html?gclid=CNXg8O2ro9QCFYGGaQodvLsEog

At home I'm running my Mac Pro Book with a external SSD Raid. I can move very large files.

Yes... it's weird I know... I usually retouched large crazy file sizes with crazy DPI's. But having those SSD raid for scratch disk does help move those crazy files that are requested from clients. At the place I freelance at they have a Mac Pro trash can 6 core with 32 gigs with mini pegasus raid https://www.adorama.com/pr2m4hd4us.html?gclid=CNXg8O2ro9QCFYGGaQodvLsEog

At home I'm running my Mac Pro Book with a external SSD Raid. I can move very large files.

Yes... it's weird I know... I usually retouched large crazy file sizes with crazy DPI's. But having those SSD raid for scratch disk does help move those crazy files that are requested from clients. At the place I freelance at they have a Mac Pro trash can 6 core with 32 gigs with mini pegasus raid https://www.adorama.com/pr2m4hd4us.html?gclid=CNXg8O2ro9QCFYGGaQodvLsEog

At home I'm running my Mac Pro Book with a external SSD Raid. I can move very large files.

Yes... it's weird I know... I usually retouched large crazy file sizes with crazy DPI's. But having those SSD raid for scratch disk does help move those crazy files that are requested from clients. At the place I freelance at they have a Mac Pro trash can 6 core with 32 gigs with mini pegasus raid https://www.adorama.com/pr2m4hd4us.html?gclid=CNXg8O2ro9QCFYGGaQodvLsEog

At home I'm running my Mac Pro Book with 16gig's with a external SSD Raid. I can move very large files. Photoshop looks at Storage. Having large storage helps.

While this is nice to know that an external raid is speeding up my workflow, it is very strange that internal memory does only help a little bit. And it's totally besides the point.

Purge All should purge. Period! I should not have to restart Photoshop to get RAM back. Period! This just points to bad engineering and adds to the thought that Adobe is at a point where they need to make a decision to re-write their imaging products. Period!

I am not even going into pixel limitations, 100 % 16 bit support and also not even thinking about mentioning 32 bit support...

Hey guys. I don't mind being taken seriously or not but think the abode tech may find this a solution along with any user facing PS using a lot of memory or scratch files. I recently got ahold of microsofts systernals package. In is is a program called RamMap that lets you track and clear unused memory.

Well before when I opened PS with a high def 300 mp file my ram usage jumped up to 35% total at around 3-4 gig for ps. Using Ram map I was able to drop it to 500 mb or less and PS ran flawlessly without a hiccup.

My pc consist of 12g system ram and shows 10.6gb free and a cache of only 189 mb. All the that with PS editing 3840X5760 @300dpi.

I then wonder a bit why I do run into Windows alerts about "Memory is low - close some applications", Windows alerts about "Running out of swap space" and also Photoshop crashing when I purge memory from working on a large file to work on the next large file. If memory would really be reused, as you say, that would not happen imo.

The bottom line for me is that if I as a user purge memory, I want it purged! And also the swap space. Until then I will continue restarting Photoshop. which thankfully due to an SSD drive. is fast enough. That I have to manually clear the swap space by deleting everything in the %TEMP% folder is just a small drag, compared to crashes.

I have Nik Collection, Athentech Perfectly Clear v3 and Topaz Labs Denoise and Re-Mask (demo versions - unused) installed. I frequently use Nik Collection. Are those plugins known to leak memory?

I wish I understood it more to give an answer. I'm hoping a tech could explain it. Again I only have 12g ram and never have a crash. Why not try dl'ing the RamMap program as it may solve your issues. at least until the techs figure it out.

Hi Alex. Good morning! That's a good question you bring up on 3rd party plugins. I know if you have a lot installed. PS takes time to open up. Also, I do you know that Google has killed/ will not support or update Nik anymore? I just saw article this week on Kelby the Grid. Online Article.

@John I will definitely look into this when I surface from the current crunch. Exhibition coming up this Friday.

@Todd I will also see if that does anything.

@Joe Yes I've seen that Nik is now cancelled. Sniff... Never seen a better sharpening tool. Ok, there's smart sharpening in PS. But as it seems I need to take a class on that. I always get halos around objects when I am happy with the sharpening.